San Francisco Chronicle - October 8, 2006
John Koopman, Chronicle Staff Writer

She did that, too, for her own children as well as scores of AIDS patients in San Francisco General Hospital's infamous Ward 5A.

Mima Perez died Sept. 21 of pneumonia. She was five days shy of her 87th birthday.

"Mom always had a saying: 'Haz bien y no mires a quien,' " said her son, Raul Ramon Rubio. "It means, 'Do what's right, and don't worry about who's watching.' "

Ms. Perez was born in Camaguey, Cuba, in 1919. Her family was poor and large; she was one of 10 children.

She married and had four children before divorcing. In 1954, she and her children immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City. She worked long hours, Rubio said, but scraped together enough money for her children to attend Catholic schools and college.

In 1984, Ms. Perez's daughter Tanya died in an automobile accident in Puerto Rico, where she had gone to live. Heartbroken, Ms. Perez accepted Rubio's suggestion that she move from New York to San Francisco, where he had moved in 1967. She was 65 years old.

After settling into an apartment at 15th and Dolores streets, Ms. Perez became involved with the chapel at Mission Dolores. She became a Eucharistic minister so she could bring communion to the elderly and to prisoners at the county jail.

"She was very proud to do that kind of work," Rubio said. "The loss of her daughter was a tremendous blow to her. She needed to focus on something."

About a year later, Ms. Perez went on a visit to San Francisco General Hospital. This was in the very early years of the AIDS epidemic. Men were wasting away from the disease, and because most had little money or family support, they ended up at Ward 5A.

Ms. Perez saw a ward full of lonely, dying men. And she knew she had to help them. Mostly, that meant simply sitting with them. Holding their hands or wiping their brows. Sometimes it meant taking a phone call late a night, just to talk.

This concern, Rubio said, came from her devout faith.

Ms. Perez was particularly concerned for Latino men. Most of their own families had abandoned them because they feared and didn't understand the disease. And because most were gay, many traditional Latino families couldn't cope with that, either.

She worked to bring Latino families to their dying sons and brothers.

"I could tell hundreds of stories of men I've seen die alone because their families have rejected them," she told the San Francisco Bay Guardian in a 1991 interview. "I've held the hands of dying men while their parents stood across the room because they were afraid they would get AIDS by touching their own son."

Ms. Perez would hug and kiss the men, and say to their families, "See? And I don't have AIDS."

"You need to do this," she would tell the families, her son said.

Some did. Some still could not bring themselves to get close.

Despite the depressing nature of the work, Ms. Perez never seemed down, Rubio said.

The Rev. Bill Justice, pastor of Mission Dolores, said Ms. Perez was well-known for her work in the AIDS ward.

"She was a tough lady, but you knew she was loved," he said. "She worked hard for her family, and she did well for others, too. I like that kind of person, and I liked Luz very much."

In 1990, Ms. Perez received a silver medal for the Philip Schaefer Award given by the Catholic Committee on the Aging of San Francisco and Catholic Charities. In 1991, she received the gold.

In 1995, Ms. Perez received a Kairos Award for Caregivers, and in 1998 she was awarded a certificate of achievement for her work in Ward 5A.

Ms. Perez worked in the AIDS ward for about a dozen years, Rubio said. In 1998, she suffered a hard fall and lost hearing in one ear and sight in one eye. Two years ago, she was hit by a car and suffered several broken bones. Nine weeks ago, she broke a hip. Then another one. She had two hip replacements at age 86.

Not long ago, she came down with pneumonia.

In addition to her son, she is survived by two daughters, Irma Reagan of Virginia Beach, Va., and Elia Cuomo of Huntington Station, N.Y.; and two brothers, Manolo Perez of Miami Beach, Fla., and Enrique Perez of Havana.

A memorial service is planned for 6 p.m. Nov. 10 at Mission Dolores, at 16th and Dolores streets, San Francisco.

Donations may be made to Mission Dolores or an AIDS foundation of choice.

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